UA: I’m issuing a challenge….

UA: I'M ISSUING A CHALLENGE...

27 JULY 2009

TODAY’S CALL OUT

If I hear one more person tell me that Under Armour is too expensive, I’m going to scream. I’m not even going to rehash the consensus short case headed into the quarter as well as my rebuttal (see the half dozen notes I’ve written on this over the past few weeks), but would encourage those ‘valuation shorts’ to drill down what the really appropriate metric is for UA. 29x earnings and 11x EBITDA. Yes, scary at face value. But who are you going to compare this to? Abercrombie??? Coach???? Dick’s??? I’ll take that comparison, as well as just about any other in the entire Consumer space. But we need to consider the total addressable market size. These are companies that are so much further down the market share penetration curve than UA that it’s almost ridiculous to make the comparison. We’ve got to factor growth into the equation here. We sliced and diced the addressable market for 18 different consumer names, and no one comes close to how cheap UA is on an Enterprise Value to Total Addressable Market ratio. In fact, with UA at 1.4% we’re looking at a median closer to 5% for the names people traditionally view as peers.

Also, unlike many of these other companies – UA actually has a plan on how to tap this market.

Yes, this will spur plenty of hate mail from people that don’t like the story here (and there are plenty of them), but my challenge is this… Find me a real company in the Consumer space that is cheaper than UA relative to the addressable market that the company is proactively planning to capture.

LEVINE’S LOW DOWN

Some Notable Call Outs

Beginning on Friday and lasting through Sunday, off-pricer Ruelala.com hosted its first Lululemon sale. While on the surface it may seem alarming that LULU is clearing goods through an online retailer other than its own site, it is important to keep this in perspective. The limited time event offered a total of 61 items, ranging from gym bags to pants. The items were mostly priced at 50% off original retail prices and it appeared that at least half of the items were sold out within an hour of the beginning of the sale. Given the growing list of prominent and premium brands taking advantage of this new channel for disposition of goods, we wouldn’t be surprised to see more events in the future. Furthermore, the ability to have a direct relationship with the customer via ecommerce offers great insight not previously available in a physical outlet or warehouse sale setting.

Back to school season is just beginning and the marketplace for computers already appears extremely competitive. Over the weekend on its blog, Wal-Mart advertised the first sub $300 laptop for the key back to school season. The model made by Compaq is full-sized (not a netbook) with a 160GB hard drive and 3GB of RAM. A quick check on Sunday night indicated the item is already sold out online after just one day. With the season still early and less competition in the electronics space, we’ll watch pricing very carefully for signs of what may also be a very promotional holiday season. With netbooks offering less features but at a more compelling price, we wonder if this is the first sign of price compression in the traditional notebook category beyond normalized deflation.

MORNING NEWS

- Report on global high-end luxury market - The worst has become to an end in the global high-end luxury market, according to the Italian luxury association Altagamma. "There're signs, in June and July, that show a significant improvement," said Santo Versace, president of Altagamma. Greater China, the Middle East and Latin America are showing signs of slight growth while the US were still seen a downward trend in July, Versace said. Altagamma also expects the world's $249 billion fashion industry's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation to drop by 21% in 2009. <fashionnetasia.com>

- US clothing retailers are hoping to raise their bottom line by expanding their offering of accessories - Gap Inc launched the first accessories-only Edition under Banana Republic in May while Henri Bendel is expanding its offerings this summer with six new 2,000 sq ft accessories stores. Casualwear retailer J.Crew opened its first accessories boutique in New York last month and will release its third accessories catalogue. Accessories accounted for around $165 million last year, or 12% of its sales, almost double the amount in 2004. Jewellery and bags can yield as much as double the 40% profit margins of apparel, according to the international press, because they take up less space and have more of a timeless appeal. Women's accessories sales by unit for the three months ended April 30 were up 2% from a year earlier, according to market research company NPD Group. <fashionnetasia.com>

- US ban on imports from Burma has been renewed for three years - The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) has urged both chambers of the US Congress to promptly renew the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003. The US ban on imports from Burma has been renewed for three years last week and the legislation is awaiting the White House's signature. "The US apparel and footwear industry strongly stands behind the commitment the US made in support of human rights," said AAFA president and CEO Kevin Burke. "These sanctions are justified by the countless atrocities committed against the Burmese people everyday." He continued: "Eliminating oppression from the world market must be a multilateral effort... The global community must join together and implement global sanctions to demonstrate that oppression will not be tolerated in the global marketplace." <fashionnetasia.com>

- The Great Retail Rationalization of the Great Recession - And even though the economy already has forced retailers to take a scalpel — or a meat cleaver — to their store portfolios, there’s still plenty of excess to cut. There is currently 46.6 square feet of retail space for every man, woman and child in the country, an increase of 14.2% since 1990, according to CoStar Group. A few retailers are continuing to grow. Buckle Inc. plans to open 21 stores this year and Kohl’s Corp. is cutting the ribbon on 56 new outposts this fall. But that expansion largely comes at the expense of fallen nameplates or with the help of landlords who want to keep their malls filled. The days of unfettered expansion are over. Per capita retail space is down slightly from a year ago, the first decline since 2000. And the pullback is expected to continue. As of April, retailers were on track to close 4,600 doors this year, according to a report from the International Council of Shopping Centers. That’s on top of 6,913 closures last year. <wwd.com/business-news>

- Several designer jewelry firms win lawsuit - Several designer jewelry firms won an apology and “substantial” cash settlement last week from an online jeweler who used the phrase “inspired by” alongside the jewelry brands’ names in its marketing. Under the terms of an agreement revealed July 24, Overstockjeweler.com and its president, Elena Castaneda, promised not to use the trademarked designs of David Yurman, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari and Gucci in the future and apologized for the harm its unauthorized wares had already caused the companies. The plaintiffs said the settlement also included a “substantial cash component,” which wasn’t disclosed. The U.S. District Court in Manhattan issued a permanent consent injunction against Overstockjeweler.com on July 9, barring the Web site from further infringements. The jewelers filed two separate lawsuits against the Web site in 2007, which the court eventually consolidated into one case. They accused the site of copying various trademarked designs and selling them as “inspired by” or “replicas of,” among other allegations. On Friday, the site’s homepage included jewelry identified as “Tiffany inspired.” <wwd.com/business-news>

- Insight into the sneaker retail business - For owner Farshad Arshid, opening his Standard sneakerhead boutique in Atlanta was a return to retail. Today, the stores stock footwear, apparel and accessories, with 40 percent to 45 percent of the business done in shoes. This time, being back in retail is a labor of love, Arshid said. “We’re fans of this stuff. We wear it ourselves.” THE RIGHT MIX: Standard stocks sneaker favorites such as Nike, Vans, Puma, Alife and DC. PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES: The store’s Website gets 2,000 to 3,000 unique hits a day, and both the store and its staff are on Twitter — Arshid also likes to reach out the old-fashioned way. There are 3,000 clients on Standard’s direct-mail list, and cross-promotions with other local stores draw new ones. In addition, Arshid leverages his connections in music to bring new artists and DJs into the stores. And even in price-conscious times, Arshid said he is trying to limit how often he goes on sale. FACING CHALLENGES: If sales are down in the 10-to-15 percent range, he said, they will count themselves lucky. Their dollars-per-ticket has dropped tremendously. They work twice as hard to make the same sale. <wwd.com/footwear-news>

- Prints by artist Alexander Girard will hit retail for the first time - The artwork moves from museum walls to a home collection this month at Urban Outfitters, in partnership with máXimo: art & research. Alexander Girard for Urban Outfitters, manufactured by The Millwork Group, features printed bed linens, pillows, drapery, shower curtains and wall art. The line includes prints from original Girard works such as Alphabet, Multiform, Eden, Loveheart and Moon with Flag. máXimo: art & research is the agent to the Estate of Alexander Girard. Besides Girard, the Los Angeles-based Millwork Group's other licenses include Robert Crowder Collection and Christopher Bettig/The Mountain Label. The home textile company also plans to announce a new license with a world-renowned pop artist. <licensemag.com>

- A pop-up art gallery featuring the fall's Gap Red Artist Edition T-shirt Collection - The exclusive T-shirt designs for men and women are produced by various established and up-and-coming artists, including James Jean, Deanne Cheuk, Stine Persson and others. The exclusive designs are available for $28 at the gallery, as well as at Gap stores nationwide, gap.com and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The line is in partnership with Red, where 50 percent of profits sold go toward the Global Fund to help eliminate AIDS in Africa. The pop-up art gallery, which will close on Aug. 30, will also feature original works of art from featured T-shirt artists, including paintings, sculptures and sketches. <licensemag.com>

- It took a harsh economic downturn to teach apparel exporter R. Sivaram what works and what doesn’t in Indian retail - When his Royal Classic Mills Pvt. Ltd, a company based in the Tamil Nadu textile town of Tirupur, rolled out its first store in 2005, the domestic retail sector was growing and many exporters were eyeing a share of the market. Four years later he is rethinking its domestic business model. In June 2008, Royal Classic shut its flagship store on Brigade Road, a Bangalore high street, where it was paying a monthly rental of Rs1 lakh. Since then, Royal Classic has shut nearly 10 stores in other cities, relocating from shopping malls and premium locations to cheaper areas. Exporters who have already got into retail don’t have a choice, but no one would get into the business now. <livemint.com>

RESEARCH EDGE PORTFOLIO: (Comments by Keith McCullough): UA

07/24/2009 09:47 AM

SELLING UA $23.96

After an awful downgrade by Sterne Agee, the stock is up +17% in less than 2-weeks. I'll sell here and buy it back on a down move. McGough continues to be the bull. KM

INSIDER TRADING ACTIVITY:

WEYS: John Florsheim, President & COO, sold 24,054shs ($577k) after exercising the right to buy 24,054shs less than 10% of common holdings.

MACRO SECTOR VIEW AND TRADING CALL OUTS:

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07/27/09 07:37 AM EDT

HOT: POST EARNINGS TIDBITS

You already know our big picture view on HOT/lodging. 2010 estimates are still too high as cost cutting has played out and top line will continue to lag the economy. However, we’ve got insights on some important, but less obvious items.

American Express Deal

As Starwood disclosed in its release, American Express is paying them $250MM to buy “points”, which can exchange for rewards by American Express users. This is basically an interest free loan that Starwood is getting, and in return they probably gave American Express a nice discounted rate. When American Express customers redeem their points for a stay at a Starwood branded hotel, Starwood will pay the hotel owner for the stay. There will be a liability on Starwood’s balance sheet to account for the $250MM in payment that they eventually will have to make. However, these payments will never hit the income statement as one would expect and instead just flow through working capital. Somehow the amortization of gains hits the income statement but the negative amortization of a realized liability does not. At the end of the day, cash is cash and over a number of years Starwood will pay out $250MM of cash related to this advance.

Italian Tax Credit

Since the Italian government is in desperate need for cash, it struck a deal with property owners. For a small upfront payment today (undisclosed of course- but I was told it was small), Starwood was able to buy $120MM worth of tax credits that they can use to defer any future capital gains should they sell any of their Italian trophy assets. Not a bad move, since the basis on those assets is low and the Italian capital gains tax rate is 28%. This is probably a little signal from Starwood that they are trying to sell some of these assets. The cash flows on these hotels are pretty de-minimis so the multiples will look great. Whether there are there still buyers of trophy assets out there is the real question.

Non-core Asset Comment

HOT referred to non-core assets on its conference call. My two cents is that they are looking into a possible sale of Bliss... it’s their only non-core non-lodging business. They already license out the use of their brands for retail.

What’s in “Other Management & Franchise Revenues” and “Other (2)”?

You already know our belief that non-cash, non-recurring profits should not get the 15x multiple normally assigned to “Fee” profits just because they’ve thrown it in the “Fee” bucket. Here is a clarification of what else was in those two line items:

Termination fees can appear in either bucket but this time it was behind door #2, lumped in with Bliss Spa income

Just as an FYI, Starwood doesn’t get the termination fee if it pushes hotels out of the system because they fail to maintain brand standards, they usually only get the fee when an asset changes hands

In a default scenario, we do not believe that many hotels will be de-flagged. However, if they are de-flagged, the debtor can reject existing contracts and probably get away with paying pennies on the dollar as a termination fee

Not sure what the other $10MM of revenues are in the “Other Management & Franchise Revenues (1)” are. However, changes on hedges are also recorded here.

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07/24/09 04:41 PM EDT

THE WEEK AHEAD

Key data points for the week of July 27-31 will include the release of Second Quarter Advance GDP on Friday, a slew of housing data and a series of Treasury auctions.

Monday July 27:

U.S.: Census Bureau new home sale data for June will be released at 10 am with Forecasts predicting a modest improvement over May’s 342, 000. The Treasury will be auctioning 20 year TIPS at 1PM.

Europe: German August Gfk Consumer Confidence and July CPI data will be released on Monday, as will Eurozone June M3 figures.

Asia: Hong Kong Trade Balance data for June will be released on Monday with forecasts indicating an expansion of last month’s 11 billion HKD deficit.

Tuesday July 28:

U.S. Case-Shiller home Prices for May will be release on Tuesday morning, as will ICSC retail chain store sales index and Redbook weekly data. Conference Board consumer confidence figures for July and ABC Consumer Comfort data will be released in the afternoon. The Treasury will be auctioning 2 year notes at 2PM.

Europe: June PPI data for France and Consumer Confidence data for Italy will be released on Tuesday.

Asia: Japanese Retail Sales and South Korean Current Account figures for June will be released on Tuesday.

Wednesday July 29:

U.S.: Mortgage application figures will be released on Wednesday morning as will Census Bureau Durable Goods and Shipments data for June. Weekly EIA Oil Stocks will be announced at 10:35 am and the Treasury will hold a 5 year note auction at 1pm.

Europe: BOE June consumer credit, Mortgage and Mortgage approval figures will be released on Tuesday as will M4, while Business confidence data will be released in Italy.

U.S.: Weekly Initial Claims data will be released on Thursday –recall that the prior week’s increase which followed three consecutive declines. EIA gas stocks will also be released on Thursday morning and the Treasury will hold a 7 year note auction at 1pm.

Europe: UK Nationwide House Prices and Gfk Consumer Confidence for July will be released on Thursday, as will German Unemployment figures and European Commission Confidence measures for July.

Asia: July CPI and PMI data will be released in Japan on Thursday but, with the LDP in a struggle for survival in the coming election, all eyes will be focused on June employment and personal income data also slated for release. Although the LDP has ruled Japan for almost the entire period since it was founded in 1955, the current economic stagnation has set the stage for a sweeping victory for the opposition Democratic Party.

Friday July 31:

U.S.: Q2 GDP advance data will be released by the BEA on Friday at 8:30.

Europe: July CPI data for the Eurozone and Italy will be released on Friday, as will Italian CPI and unemployment. Swedish Q2 GDP will be announced on Friday, with consensus estimates anticipating a further decline from Q1’s measure of -6.5% Y/Y.

Asia: Thailand trade and production data for June will be released on Friday.

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07/24/09 03:10 PM EDT

“Shoots” in Europe?

The July Purchasing Managers’ Index was released by Markit Economics today for the Eurozone, Germany, and France. While we believe that making an absolute call on Europe would be shortsighted due to the uncorrelated returns across the region based on unique underlying fundamentals, today’s report provides a useful metric for comparing the two largest individual EU economys’ performance on a relative basis.

According to the composite PMI index, Eurozone aggregate manufacturing and service industries rose to 46.8 in July from 44.6 in the previous month.

For Germany, the largest economy in the Europe, PMI improved on a monthly basis. The Manufacturing index rose to 45.2 from 40.9 in June and Services index rose to 48.4 from 45.2, just short of the 50 level that divides contraction from expansion. France’s PMI for manufacturing advanced to 47.9 from 45.9 while services declined to 45.5 from 47.2.

The Ifo Institute also reported today that the German business climate index for July rose to 87.3 from 85.9 in the previous month, exceeding an expected gain to 86.5, and notching a four straight months of improvement.

For Germany, a country that has been on a short list of Eurozone countries we’re bullish on, today’s PMI and business confidence numbers indicate a step in the right direction. From a fundamental set-up we’ve been positive on Chancellor Merkel’s leadership; she has balanced a stimulus package (85 Billion EUR) with timely incentives such as the cash-for-trash auto rebate. These initiatives now appear to be supporting modest growth recovery, which we see making steady improvement into 2H ’09.

Germany’s powerful manufacturing capacity remains a primary structural advantage, with recent positive (but lagging) production signals that show sequential improvement on a monthly and annual basis, as well as Factory Orders that were up 4.4% in May over April levels. While the internal demand picture appears to be improving with the low CPI/low interest rate environment bolstering consumer spending, exports have shown a faint sign of improvement at 0.3% in May M/M. Because exports make up nearly half of German GDP, they could remain a stumbling block for growth if we don’t see measureable improvement in Q3 with production trends reversing in the absence of external demand. For now though, the positive catalysts appear to be gaining on the negative, making Germany the most attractive of the primary EU economies on a relative basis.

As we continue to monitor the European patient we’ll be looking to pair off our short position in Italy (EWI). Germany was down today along with most Western European indices, capping 9 days straight of gains or a 12.9% move for the DAX since 7/10. Stay tuned as we look to buy the German etf EWG on pullback.

Matthew Hedrick

Analyst

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07/24/09 02:52 PM EDT

Squeezy's Return: SP500 Levels, Refreshed...

“I'm not going to waste my time arguing with a man who's lining up to be a hot lunch.”

-Hooper (Jaws, 1975)

Back by popular request (after getting my 954 level wrong) is the mascot we rode for the better part of Q2, Squeezy The Shark. Make no mistake, this market’s quantitative setup has changed, and unless you change with it, as Quint would say, “This shark, swallow you whole.”

When the market was on the lows this morning I bought the Nasdaq (QQQQ) as it’s fundamental setup is stronger (great balance sheets + liquidity) than that of the SP500 (financials, leverage, etc…). That said, the SP500 is Mr. Market, so that’s where I anchor our US equity risk management process.

In the chart below, Andrew Barber and I have outlined our new nautical map:

TAIL = 954 (resistance now becomes support)

TREND = 897 (way lower, but higher than my Range Rover 871 which has held in nicely so far in Q3)

TRADE = 948 (that’s the line that you need to watch-out for Squeezy at – trust the shorts, they are there)

Happy swimming,

KM

Keith R. McCulloughChief Executive Officer

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07/24/09 12:28 PM EDT

Restaurants - Earnings Fatigue

Continuing the theme from Q1, restaurant companies are beating Q2 EPS expectations by cutting costs. Unlike Q1, a significant earnings beat is no longer driving stocks appreciably higher. The cost cutting theme is becoming the consensus and not an investable theme that moves stocks.

Here is the drill from a typical company.

The good news:

“We’ve also identified other cost savings opportunities”

“The lower capital spending will go towards boosting our cash balance, further strengthening our balance sheet and increasing our future flexibility. And we will have even more time and resources to focus on operations and execution at our existing base of restaurants.”

Unfortunately:

“Despite a continued low level of visibility for the rest of the year due to both last year’s volatility and the ongoing economic uncertainty it’s very difficult to know where same-store sales will come in”

So far this earnings season, the stocks are not reacting to the better than expected earnings news. Stocks performed well post calendar Q1 numbers because for most FSR companies it was the first quarter of operating margin growth in at least two years. In Q1, restaurant operators proved they could cut costs to offset sales weakness and boost margins. In Q2, investors seem to be expecting these cost savings and even when a company increases its cost saving projections, like CAKE did yesterday, it is not enough to get the stock moving higher.

The bulk of the fat has been cut from these companies’ operating models so the obvious question is where do we go from here. It will be impossible for these companies to continue to grow margins once they start to lap these savings initiatives if sales don’t pick up. They can’t cut costs forever without hurting the customer experience and eroding their brands. And, as I already pointed out, most companies are saying they have limited visibility about when sales might turn positive.

This thought can best be shown by the chart below, which looks at FSR same-store sales growth trends, as reported by Malcolm Knapp, relative to the average YOY bp change in EBIT margin for DRI, RT, CAKE, PFCB and BJRI (FSR companies that have reported calendar 2Q earnings so far).

Clearly this trend is not sustainable – these companies cannot continue to grow margins with negative same-store sales growth. CAKE’s CFO Doug Benn highlighted this point in response to a question about if and when the company would recapture the margin level of yesteryear:

“Internally, the way that we are looking at it, we’re taking it one step at a time. If you go back to 2007 margins, operating margins they were around 8.5%, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 to 300 basis points better than where we expect to end this year. And the scenario to get back there, some of it is going to be this cost-cutting and the cost initiatives and we’ve made some great progress there but the real avenue to get back is we have to have a plus sign in front of comparable store sales. And until we do that, we’re not going to be able to get all the way back.”

We all know that comparisons get very easy in 2H, particularly in Q4. What if easy comparisons are not that easy? Minimum wage is now higher for the balance of 2009 and the benefits of lower commodity costs will diminish over the next six months.

I don’t want to paint a bearish picture because nearly all the companies I follow are financially strong cash generators. And, with little to no development plans in the near-term, their cash positions are only building. What I’m struggling with is deciphering the catalyst (positive or negative) that will get these stocks moving in either direction.

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